The "Misfits" are a group of five 20-somethings who are united by a series of traumatic events, and the emergence of their freaky new superpowers. These newfound abilities all relate to their deepest personality traits and psychological drives; turning their desires into realities, and their greatest weaknesses into weapons.

Alex, the handsome but reserved local bartender who's not on community service, but seems to be keeping a power-related secret, revealed to be that his genitalia had been switched by a power, which is eventually reversed. Series 5 sees him having a lung transplant giving him the ability to remove powers via sex. (From Series 4)

Abby, a girl with a love of booze and an ever-present blank expression who lost her entire memory during the Storm. Series 5 reveals that she didn't actually lose her memory (despite her opening titles segment not really making sense post-reveal) and is really the storm-caused manifestation of someone's imaginary friend. (From Series 4).

This show contains examples of the following tropes:

Accidental Murder: Kind of a plot-motor here. The Misfits kill a lot of people. Curtis has on multiple occasions warned them ahead of the crime that somebody must die for the greater good. Becomes somewhat of a prominent theme of the third season finale.

It is frequently brought up for black comedy purposes. For instance, when Nathan claims that they're the good guys because they don't murder anyone, Curtis reminds him that they've actually killed quite a few people, but Nathan brushes it off with "we didn't mean to."

All There in the Manual: A pair of webisodes give more clarity on Nathan's departure (and also serves as Rudy's first appearance), and on where a graffiti artist (that the gang is constantly cleaning up after) comes from.

Both are up on Hulu, but are listed in the 'Clips' section, so it's very easy to miss them, especially the first webisode, which serves as a bridge between Series 2 & 3.

All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Inverted. The Misfits ransack Superhoodie's flat for clues, and Nathan takes a dump in his bed. Oops, that should read what they thought was Superhoodie's flat.

More conventionally, both Virtue Girl and "Jesus" have based themselves in the community centre.

In the alternative world where the Nazis won, the community centre is the local Nazi Party base and prison.

All Your Powers Combined: Jesus takes the powers of Alisha and Nikki, while a girl called Sarah receives several powers that appeared in season 5 when Alex's powers are reversed and he fucks them into her.

1.4: Where Curtis never got caught in the drug bust, and everyone (except Nathan) died when the probation worker attacked them.

2.6: When the Misfits, and many other people with powers become famous, but are all killed by a young man with the power to manipulate lactose because, despite being the first person with powers to go public, he's quickly considered a joke or novelty compared to the more impressive/cool abilities.

5.8: Jess is pushed ahead a year into the future by a boy she hooks up with at the bar. In the time she's missing, the superhero gang started by Rudy Two have turned into sociopaths, killing both criminals but also anyone they deem simply to be wankers.

An Aesop: Rudy is subjected to one in episode 3.6, when he finally learns to stop mistreating women through his constant one-night stands, or as he puts it "living for himself", when his latest conquest curses his penis to rot and fall off. Hilariously, he goes on about how he's a better person and how "we're all in this together" right up until his other self walks in, having been forced to spend a night in a police cell thanks to Rudy forgetting about him.

And the Adventure Continues: The final episode ends this way. Helen and Rudy Two decide to see the world while the main gang (at this point, original Rudy, Jess, Finn, Abby and Alex) decide to become proper superheroes. In the final shot, a new storm, that looks similar to the first one that gave everyone powers, is seen rolling up in the distance.

As the original storm gave everyone powers related to their job, personality or state of mind, who knows what would happen if the gang gets caught in a second power storm, while they are determined to become superheroes....

Anyone Can Die: But Curtis' time travel powers can save the main cast. After Nathan learns his power, he dies a lot.

Used repeatedly in the third season. Shaun is finally killed in episode 5, Alisha is murdered in the finale, and Simon goes back in time to save her, effectively dooming himself to die in the past.

Curtis, the last person from the original cast still around, dies in Season 4. Fittingly enough, considering he was one of the more level headed of the original group he did killed himself to prevent him from hurting anyone, due to becoming a flesh-eating zombie. Poor Rudy broke down in tears...

Anti-Villain: So far most of the bad guys they have come across-Lucy, Sally and Tony-have been fairly sympathetic in their own way, and not just evil for evil's sake. Again, a major aspect of the third season finale.

Averted with Brian, who admits up front, quite gleefully, he's killing "shitloads of people" so he can get attention again.

Armor-Piercing Question: Simon asking Alisha "Why are you being so nice to me?" after she brings him a drink and thanks him for saving them. It actually drives her to tears.

Alex gives one to Stuart when asking him about the irony of their situation "Am I fucking you because you're not gay and you're just sick of having your power or am I fucking you because you are gay and you just don't want to tell anyone about it?"

As the Good Book Says...: Rudy tries invoking the Good Samaritan when getting Helen to help him, Jess and Abbie. He then humorously gets this mixed up with the Crucifixion and Nativity stories however. Jess sarcastically comments after hearing it about how well he knows the scriptures. Nathan also refers to the Good Samaritan when trying to persuade the gang to steer clear of trouble in 2.4, "like the Good Samaritan".

Attempted Rape: This happens to Alisha a fair bit due to her original power.

Melissa and Emma in 3.2.

It looked like Greg was going this way with Finn but his telekinesis flared up and knocked him over some railings.

Attention Whore: Nathan will do virtually anything to get attention, including simulating oral sex on a mop, performing strange and lengthy Bono impersonations, and pretending to masturbate with a paint-brush. Sometimes his extravagant attention-seeking actually gets the group out of trouble. Alisha has her moments too, though she specifically craves positive male attention rather than just needing to be noticed in general. She becomes a lot more mature in Series 2 and doesn't display nearly as much attention-seeking behaviour, whereas Nathan, if anything, gets worse.

Beauty Is Bad: Especially noticeable with Lucy, who, compared to all the other crazies, is practically a goddess.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Curtis desperately wanted the chance to undo the mistakes he'd made, but he didn't bargain for the problems meddling with history would involve. Nikki really wanted a heart; the teleporting ability that came with it is not always controllable.

There's also an episode when Alisha abused her power, until she realised the lack of value and meaning in her sexual encounters.

Curtis wishes for a chance to run again, but it complicates his life in unforeseen ways.

Bi the Way: Emma, the female runner who Curtis meets while in his Melissa form. She ends up having sex with him in both forms.

Bittersweet Ending: The Series 3 finale. Simon and Alisha are locked in a time loop of falling in love and dying. Lampshaded when Rudy asks whether he should be happy or sad, and Curtis tells him "both".

Curtis also ends up with a variation of one who uses whoever her current lover is to kill the previous one.

Blatant Lies: Angry at "Jesus" for misusing their powers, Nathan states that it's not as if the main cast have murdered and raped anyone. Curtis quickly shoots him down, reminding him that actually, they have.

Nathan: When we had our powers, we didn't rape or kill anyone! Curtis: What? She raped me, and we've killed loads of people! Nathan: Well...yeah, but...we're the good guys!Curtis: We'll get you an ambulance. Hold in there. You'll be fine.

Blessed with Suck: Everybody, to a degree. The show focuses a great deal on the annoying and inconvenient aspects of having a superpower. Some people have powers that are practically useless, or just drove them crazy.

Special mention must go to Alisha, who is nearly raped every time she touches a man for the first few episodes.

Most powers: Kelly's telepathy allows one to hear other's thoughts...many of which are insulting or really dirty, Tony gets super-strength coupled with murderous rage, Lucy could shapeshift but transformation was very painful, Lily's pyrokinesis (actually cryokinesis but she took ecstasy, which reverses powers) was triggered during intercourse, teleportation is used by several people but Nikki can't control it, emotional duplication (creates a duplicate in a Literal Split Personality situation and owned by Rudy and Geoff)creates psycho clones representing the deep, dark parts of the user, the ability to tell the future (in many forms, including knitting) will probably show someone dying eventually, resurrection makes flesh-hungry zombies, power removal requires sex (although depending on who needs their powers removing this one's debatable), one time-travel power doesn't let you come back (except the slow way) and there are many more. Some are like this before the users are used to them (flight only works if you're fleeing, invisibility and camouflage only work when ignored) but they're fine once controlled better.

In the Series 3 finale, it's Alisha, courtesy of getting her throat slit by Rachel, Virtue Girl.

Blood-Splattered Wedding Dress: Poor Kelly has shades of this come 2.4 when Tim kidnaps her. His power causing him to view everything as playing a violent videogame. He sees her as his ex-girlfriend who stole his money and jilted him at the altar. He forces her to wear a wedding dress.

Boom, Headshot: How a zombified Curtis shoots himself, to save the rest from infection.

Brain Freeze: Rudy suffers from one after Abby dares him to eat his ice cream in one go.

Rudy: She dared me to swallow me full Cornetto in one go. Mate, it's given me the worst brain freeze. I thought I was going to die there for a minute.

Brainwashing for the Greater Good: What Virtue Girl apparently believes she's doing with her power. It turns drug-using, sexually promiscuous young people into upstanding, straight-laced Christians.

Break the Cutie: The torrent of pain and misfortune endured by Simon could be seen as this, although he was well on the way to being "broken" anyway; years of being bullied and humiliated at school caused him to Freak Out! one day and attempt to burn down his worst tormentor's house. Until he realised that would involve killing a cat, and extinguished the flames. By pissing through the letterbox.

Sally also did this to him by accident near the end of Series 1, after pretending to like him in order to get close enough to find information proving he and the other Misfits killed Tony. In an ensuing struggle he accidentally bangs her head against the door with enough force to kill her.

Brick Joke: A very dark one comes in Series 2. Nikki tells Curtis that someone with his power would normally use it to travel back in time to kill Hitler. He can't, since he can only time travel to change events he feels guilty about. Come the Christmas Episode and Seth, the powers dealer, says he sold Curtis' power to an old Jewish man planning to do just that. Since he's a Holocaust survivor with Survivor's Guilt, he can go back to before it happened and try to stop it. We actually get to see the attempt and how it turns out in Series 3.

In the first episode, Nathan guesses that his power is flight, as "there's always one who can fly". No luck, all the way until series 5, when it's shown a man can fly.

It seems whenever someone's power starts messing with people, it's always Nathan. Sometimes it's not even powers: the universe just loves screwing over Nathan. Although his misfortune is very often a direct result of his own idiocy, arrogance and/or generaljerkassery, whereas Simon is undeservingly victimised. Plus Simon is painfully aware of his own butt monkey status, while Nathan remains ridiculously over-confident despite leading a life of near-constant humiliation. That trait is what makes him immortal.

Ollie up until his prompt death, anyway.

Finn.

Call-Back: In the Nazi episode, a few powered people the group encountered before appear when the Nazis are looking for people with powers.

Greg sings the Power of Love in 5.3, having previously sung it at karaoke.

Call-Forward: Nathan and Curtis each accuse the other of being about to shit themselves. Oddly, because of Curtis' time manipulation, neither of them remember the other saying it to them when they say it.

Came Back Wrong: With the resurrection power introduced in Series 3, any living thing brought back from the dead develops a craving for flesh. But unlike most examples of this trope, the resurrected maintains their intelligence and personality and don't become entirely mindless zombies.

They do, however, take on a "rage virus" quality when attempting to feed.

Also, Nicholas Burns (from Nathan Barley, and various other British comedies) plays the horny policeman in 1.2.

Can't Have Sex, Ever: Oddly enough, the effective result of Alisha's first power. She and Curtis can't have mutually consenting sex. Her pheromone manipulation causes him to forget who he is momentarily. He stops caring about her and just wants to have sex with her, and once the physical contact is broken, he can't remember any of it. Because they want to preserve their emotional connection, they are forced to resort to more unconventional methods of sexual intimacy.

Captain Obvious: Nathan's "The probation worker's gone mental!" line, when he'd already been warned about said probation worker's mentality and refused to believe it. In his defence, you probably wouldn't believe that your supervisor had suddenly turned into a murderous axe-wielding maniac until you saw it with your own eyes. Especially if you're The Ditz.

Cloudcuckoolander: Throughout her limited amount of time on the show, Marnie definitely came across as this.

Finn's starting to show some shades it as well.

Jess: "Will you please stop saying vagina."

Finn: "What do you call yours then?"

Coconut Superpowers: The show thrives on this. Of the original cast, only Simon's superpower requires any sort of special effects, and even then, only when he initially turns invisible. Of the season 4 cast, only Rudy and Jess's powers require special effects, since Finn can only move small objects with his telekinesis. In season 5 Rudy very rarely merges or splits on-screen (although effects are needed then), Alex has some fairly basic effects (bright lights) and Abby's power needs no effects.

Coitus Uninterruptus: The fake Jesus is shown counting some wads of stolen money and receiving oral sex from a girl in a Santa hat (for extra evil points, she's under the influence of a sex-pheromone-manipulating superpower at the time, so it's actually rape). When he's interrupted by a group of six people, he just holds a conversation with them as though absolutely nothing unusual was happening. Although he does pull a few interesting facial expressions.

Compelling Voice: The power of Virtue Girl from the Series 1 finale. The only way to reverse the effects is to kill her.

Competence Zone: Power users are almost always about the same age as the Misfits, with lots of the exceptions having bought their powers rather than obtaining them naturally. And an even more disproportionate number of them end up doing Community Service!

Cosy Catastrophe: Nathan seems remarkably cool about being buried alive - after an initial short outburst, he just lies back and starts listening to his iPod.

Simon points out this is the inevitable result if they don't quarantine and deal with the zombie problem immediately.

Country Matters: Played with particularly in the "Grand Theft Auto" episode with the character of Conti, and fairly frequent appearances throughout, Jessica Brown-Findlay among others having uttered the Deplorable Word on the show.

Creepy Child: Looks like we've found the "daddy" counterpart of the Doctor Who "Are you my mummy?" child. The baby in 1.5 has the power to induce any man with the desire to be his dad.

Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Virtue Girl appears to be part of the comic relief for the Series 3 finale, until she turns out to be one of the few people able to kill off a main character for good.

Crying Wolf: This happens to Nathan a few times due to his penchant for telling extravagant lies. He both figuratively and literally cried wolf in 1.2.

Season 2 has an unnamed group of worshippers led by a priest claiming to be Jesus Christ (aided by superpowers)

Season 5 has the "Agents of Satan"

Cursed with Awesome: Kelly and Alisha largely resent the superpowers they've received, since the benefits are insignificant when compared with the downsides, and are quick to get rid of them once they find out it's possible. Curtis views his this way too, despite it having been proven time and time again to be the most useful.

Dark Messiah: In the Christmas episode we get a false Jesus. He's not interested in any grandiose vision, though, but uses his powers for petty, personal gain, such as having sex with women or stealing from people.

Dead Man's Chest: In the first season, a rather hilarious version of this happens. The Misfits's probation worker goes crazy thanks to the storm and kills one of them, and to avoid blame (they're all juvenile delinquents) they bury the bodies under a bridge, transporting it using Alisha's dad's car. Then they find out the bridge is being demolished to make way for a wildlife centre, so they dig up the bodies, hoping to rebury them under the concrete of the new centre. However, Alisha and Curtis are arguing, and therefore not present at the crucial time, so the remaining Misfits steal the keys to their new probation worker's car to move the bodies. Then before they can move the bodies out of the car, Sally, their probation worker, appears and drives home. The next morning she comes into work, smells something in the back of the car, and discovers the bodies. Curtis rewinds time, and Nathan has to distract her by throwing a brick at her car to avoid her noticing the two corpses in her car boot.

Deadpan Snarker: Nathan, in spades. Also Shaun, the probation worker from Series 2.

Simon also begins showing signs of this once he starts to come out of his shell.

Jess owns this trope.

Pretty much everything out of Alex's mouth in series 5 was this trope.

In the first episode of Series 3 Tanya, the girl who could stop time, dies this way after Rudy kicks her and she cracks her skull on the floor.

Defence Mechanism Superpower: Nathan. His immortality literally won't kick in until after he dies first, only then will he be able to heal from whatever killed him and resurrect himself. If it's not a fatal wound, he can't heal himself... which is exactly what the "Milk Guy" in Season 2 does. He incapacitates him in such a way that he's been turned into a vegetable, but still alive, so he can't heal himself.

Finn's telekinesis isn't strictly this, as he can always lift small things at will but it kind of is, as it is a lot stronger when he or someone else is in major danger, easily knocking back a fairly strong person or horseman of the apocalypse.

Psycho!Rudy makes a friggin campaign out of doing this to Jess in 4.3.It kinda works, but she wasn't much of an ice queen to begin with, just bitingly reserved about her personal life.

Depraved Homosexual: Greg the probation worker. He's creepy in general, but starts attempting to seduce Finn after he sees Alex having sex with him (long story). At one point he also mentions having beaten up a young man who rejected his advances.

Determinator: The "villain" in episode 4.1. By the end of it he's had a hand chopped off, both testicles removed and his penis mutilated and he's just been thrown off a building, yet still somehow has enough strength left to open the case to have one last feel of his money before he dies. And that goes without saying all the stuff he went through from being hit by the storm to meeting the Misfits in the episode itself, some we only saw glimpses of.

His power seems to inspire this effect in those infected with it as well, such as Curtis, who was locked in a freezer for enough time for frost to form on his body, yet able to violently jump out after Jess and Finn opened said freezer before bolting away. Of course, the entire time his focus was completely on the case.

Diegetic Switch: Played with in the Series 1 finale. Three characters wear iPods in and each one is given their own backing theme.

Disappeared Dad: Nathan's father. Implied to have been the "psychologically absent" type before leaving Nathan and his mother altogether. Apparently he cheated on Nathan's mother, walked out on her, and has another son he'd never bothered to mention. Oh, and he also left Nathan alone and unattended in Ikea for three hours on his eighth birthday, during which time Nathan ended up having lunch with a known pedophile.

Nathan: That sick pervert cared more about me than dad ever did...he would've taken me to the zoo.

The father of the baby in 1.5. as well, which inspired the baby's power of making any man he comes into contact with want to be his dad. Kelly suggests his mother bring him to his real father at the end, so this could make him want to stick around.

Discard and Draw: The apparent fate of most of the cast at the end of the Series 2 Christmas special. Alisha in particular, as her power presumably died with "Jesus". Not that Alisha wanted it back, though.

Curtis in 3.6 because due to getting his female body pregnant through messy masturbation, he gets stuck in the female form and has to go back to Seth for a power removal.

Disc-One Final Boss: The third season finale has this in spades. The first five minutes imply the Medium might be the big bad of the episode, by halfway through we're sure it's Ghost!Sally but in the end it turns out they should have kept their eye on Ghost!Virtue Girl all along.

Although Sally was sort of a bad guy, as she had intended to kill Alisha to get revenge on Simon. It's just that she willingly gives up the campaign as soon as she's reunited with Tony. Unlike Virtue Girl, whose very reason for not being able to move on is she desires revenge against the Misfits.

Disgusting Public Toilet: The toilet in the scuzzy club in 1.4, of which we get loads of unpleasant close-ups while Curtis is trying to flush away the cocaine. The toilets in the community centre aren't so peachy either.

All things considered, the bodies are disposed of pretty well. The two buried in the concrete foundations are unlikely to ever be found, and the frozen body - if found - will be a nightmare for forensics to decipher, thanks to all the time spent in the freezer.

The quality of disposal in Series 3 goes down. Most of them are dumped in shallow graves. With the number of disappearances that can be linked to the community centre, it's a wonder the police haven't found them by now.

Dogged Nice Guy: Finn for Jess. Alex isn't that bad, until he gets his dick back.

Finn's former "stepmom" starts giving him oral sex even when he says "no" repeatedly. Even he doesn't seem to realise this was rape, and no one else believes his protests that this wasn't what he wanted.

It is debatable, as offhand mentions show he is upset but he realised that it was the best option and it can be argued that he gave retrospective consent. Rudy later calls Alex "The Raper" though, so it is eventually called out just like the last one. Overall there seems to be a strong consensus that Alex taking their power through force is a perfectly acceptable way to deal with someone they can't otherwise beat, as it done again on Sam, in Luke's future and nobody bats an eyelid, despite having also killed the villain in question.

Averted in one instance, as Alex is clearly getting ready to fuck the power out of Leah before Finn tells him he's already talked her down and there's no need.

Averted with Sally's behaviour towards Simon. Convinced he knows something, she essentially seduces him knowing he has a crush on her. It's portrayed as a dark moment and Simon accidentally killing her in self-defence is shown as Laser-Guided Karma for her.

Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Peter when he fights Superhoodie/Simon wears a variation on the Superhoodie outfit, except with evil-looking red lines, reminiscent of Marvel's Carnage.

Dressing as the Enemy: In the Series 1 finale Nathan dresses up in a pale grey suit to fit in with the other brainwashed teens.

Driven to Suicide: Jess relates that she attempted suicide after her boyfriend left her. Abbie does so too by overdosing with pills when Laura rejects her, while Jess stops it. When drained by the life force vampire in 5.6, people completely lose the will to live, attempting suicide, with one succeeding.

Drunk Driver: Alisha, even after getting banned from driving (hence her being sentenced to community service in the first place).

Drunk on the Dark Side: The main villain in the Christmas Episode, a vicar who buys powers in order to fool people into thinking he's Jesus Christ reborn.

Dude, Not Funny!: Jess gets quite upset when Finn tells her about how his uncle raped him as a child, then admits it was a joke to "lighten the mood". Naturally she doesn't find it funny at all.

3.6: Averted by Simon telling Rudy in no uncertain terms "That's rape" when he suggests having sex with a sleeping woman.

5.1: Alex has sex with an unconscious Finn to rid him of Satan.

Early-Bird Cameo: All the Misfits, and Tony and Sally, are present in the club the night Curtis travels back to try and fix things for his ex-girlfriend Sam. Except Nathan, but he's in the bowling alley in the same building, doing the things that lead to him getting community service.

Earn Your Happy Ending: In 1.4, Curtis uses his power several times, first to prevent his girlfriend Sam from being sent to prison, later to keep his friends from getting killed by Tony. He has to try it a few times before he gets it all right, but eventually he succeeds. Until he discovers that now he's still dating his ex AND Alisha

Ensemble Cast: A true example now, with Nathan leaving after two series, Alisha, Kelly and Simon leaving after three, and Curtis' departure in series 4, with new cast members being brought in each time. Following Curtis' final appearance, the main cast is now entirely different from that of the first series.

Idealized Sex: Most of the sex on the show comes across as horribly unrealistic, with no mentions of contraception, safety, etc. It gets really bad when one of the characters has anal sex, and doesn't even have to use lube. Any person that's had anal sex can attest that it is not that simple. To make it worse, it later happens again while actively flying through the sky!

Everyone Went to School Together: Averted: Despite living on a relatively insular estate together and all being around the same age, most of the gang had never met each other before starting community service together. The exceptions are Alisha, Rudy, and Curtis - Alisha and Rudy were in Sixth Form together, and they briefly met Curtis there when he gave a motivational speech to their class.

Fan Disservice: Plenty in Series 1. Both seem to revolve around Nathan; a middle-aged naked man running around naked, thinking he's a dog; and the revelation the Girl of the Week Nathan has sex with is really a 82-year old woman, as her true age is shown mid-orgasm. It's really as disturbing as it sounds, and Nathan's horrified reaction is...understandable.

This is also the episode where Nathan learns he can also see the dead.

Subverted again in exactly the same way. This time Jess becomes blind instead of having X-ray vision, Alex puts all of the powers he removed from the people through sex into someone he has sex with and Mark (whose power is being a tortoise) just turns back into a human.

Failed a Spot Check: Played with; after sneaking back into the community centre in episode 1, Nathan notices the bloodstains and hacked-open bathroom stall door, he just doesn't seem to care.

Fake-Out Make-Out: Alisha with Shaun in the Fookin' Nazis! Timeline so Simon can sneak away with his stolen antibiotics. Although it's played with, in that Shaun had convinced himself that Alisha really liked him.

Fate Worse Than Death: Brian in 2.6 strangled Nathan's cerebral cortex with mozzarella, potentially leaving him in a vegetative state forever.

Femme Fatale: Alisha, big-time, particularly when you consider her power. Not that she wasn't enough of one in the first place.

In Season 4, Lola has this as her "power", literally. It turns out that she was an aspiring actress playing a Femme Fatale character when the storm hit, leaving her stuck in character and having her past personality and memories completely overwritten, leading to the dramatic consequences that this type of character usually creates (hence the "fatale" in the name) for her and the several men she started using, including Curtis.

Fire-Forged Friends: Let's be honest - the five of them wouldn't usually hang around each other any other day. But nothing like shared pain, murder, mayhem and fighting off mind control to get the team spirit going.

Foreshadowing: Nathan's power is alluded to in 1.4. where he is the only one to be found alive after Tony's attack. The paramedics speculated that he was "just lucky" and he himself admits he has no idea how he survived.

The opening credits are literal examples, as the kids' shadows hint at the powers they develop.

For Abby the opening seems to imply that her power is simply amnesia, as we had come to expect but hadn't been confirmed. This is a subversion, as the seeming foreshadowing of the obvious is a red herring. She's someone's imaginary friend.

Forgot About His Powers: When the main characters were trying to come up with a way they could break into a convent "full of evil bitch nuns" to save Nadine in 4.8, we got this exchange:

Abby: "You could use the special powers you got after being struck by that random, freak storm!"

Beat

Abby: "It's just a thought."

Finn: "You know we really should use them more often."

Happened with Jess throughout series 5, though it was never more obvious then when, instead of standing a fair distance away from the door and using her x-ray vision to see if Leah-possessed Alex and her nail gun were outside, she went out of her way to use the peep-hole! Later, she doesn't bother to check whether [[psycho-Geoff]] is behind a door but moments later remembers about her power and looks into a car boot, finding [[main Geoff.]]

And Lampshaded by Simon, who called it that, correcting Rudy who misidentified it as Face/Off

Freeze-Frame Bonus: You'd probably have to be a mad fan to find this in any way entertaining, but in the scene towards the end of episode 2 when Nathan and his mum have just reconciled, Nathan walks over to Jeremy and makes a comment. Freeze the frame, zoom in, and just look at the cup Jeremy's holding.

Freudian Excuse: Nathan despises his father, and at one point suggests that his own problems are due to the fact that his dad was never around. Also, while Simon never actively blames his psychological issues on his past misfortunes, they do offer quite a solid explanation for his current fragile state.

From a Certain Point of View: Although there is a little more to it, turns out Nathan's crime did start with him eating some pick-and-mix. Then it became petty assault and being a dick to a cop.

Funny Background Event: Keep an eye out for facial expressions (usually from Simon) when another character (usually Nathan or Rudy) is saying something especially absurd.

Gadgeteer Genius: Although Kelly's new "rocket scientist" power doesn't seem too useful at first, it turns out that it can be applied to other kinds of machines, enabling her to fix a car's engine within seconds and easily deactivate a security alarm.

Geas: A young Roma woman puts a curse on Alex after he refuses to help her retrieve something that had fallen in the water. It makes him help everyone who asks, or he'll have to feel like he's drowning. Finn quickly exploits this by making Alex lend him money. She takes it off after he shows contrition.

Genre Savvy: Simon appears to be aware of the tropes involved when it comes to superpowers.

Godwin's Law of Time Travel: Curtis tells Nikki that most would use his time-travel power to kill Hitler. In series 3 a Holocaust survivor tries to, after buying it off Seth.

Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted; Curtis quickly gets rid of his Gender Bender power after getting his female alter ego pregnant accidentally, effectively aborting that pregnancy. The word isn't used, though Alicia says "There are options, you know" when Melissa!Curtis is worrying over what to do.

Good Thing You Can Heal: Nathan once his immortality powers are revealed. He comments at one point while jammed on a pipe that yes, it's extremely painful, before dying.

Grand Theft Me: It happens to Kelly in Season 3, and is one of the applications of Leah's power in Season 5.

Harmless Freezing: Lily freezes Nathan's arm accidentally, but does him no damage beyond momentary pain. Averted however when Captain Smith gets her power in the Nazi timeline - he freezes poor Gary to death in seconds.

Have We Met Yet?: Curtis faces this when he reverses time and meets several of his "present-day" companions, all of whom fail to recognise him.

And Simon later takes a knife in the gut to save Curtis, in order for Curtis to be able to rewind time to save the others.

Rudy attempts one to save Alisha from Time-Control Girl Tanya but they're rescued before he actually dies.

In the Nazi timeline, Peter, the guy who can direct the future via comics, presumably makes one when trying to escape, knowing the unimaginable damage his power could do.

Nadine later lets the Four Horsemen kill her rather than having the gang sacrifice themselves to save her.

High Turnover Rate: Try to think of an episode where someone does not die, even if it's temporary? Having trouble? Well it's episode 3 in series 1. This trope even gets lampshaded a few times.

More specifically, they go through a lot of probation workers. The Misfits are forced to kill two, they kill Shaun in a reversed timeline and then he's finally killed by Jenn as Kelly. It's eventually Played for Laughs - we don't even learn one's name before she's mauled to death by a zombie cheerleader in 3.7.

Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Nathan's anecdote about his eighth birthday definitely qualifies - it involved him being abandoned in Ikea by his father, and spending the day eating meatballs with a paedophile. Similarly, Nathan's story about a camping trip where his mother's friend bad-touched him. It's possible that it's because he's such a pathological liar people assume he's just trying to get attention.

Hitler's Time-Travel Exemption Act: Hitler overpowered the septuagenarian time traveler and took his phone, spurring advances in Nazi technology and winning them the war. At the end of the episode Kelly gains the time travel power and goes back and retrieves the phone. She also "kicks the shit out of Hitler." Kelly is the only one to remember the alternate timeline.

Hoist by His Own Petard: "Jesus" is hit by the file cabinet he's trying to yank away with telekinesis from the gang and killed after they let go.

Rudy is perhaps the best example of this considering it isn't even up to him when his clone decides to pop out. Not to mention that Rudy Three was actually able to take control of his body.

It's all Finn can do to make a plant shuffle off a shelf. In short: He can use weak telekinesis at will but anything stronger than moving a shopping trolley a meter forward has only been seen as instinctive.

Jess may have had trouble earlier but by the time we get to her she can voluntarily use her power.

Abby's power doesn't work that way, as we're initially meant to believe that it is amnesia, but it is actually being someone's imaginary friend. The power to make one's imaginary friends real is shown to be used accidentally, creating both Abby and Scary. and Alex's is unclear as it seems to activate whenever he orgasms but he hasn't been shown to be able to not use it.

It's understandably used and subverted with less significant characters. Notable in series 2 is Tim, who struggles with not using his power. Understandable, as it is thinking he is the main character of a GTA-esque game.

Idealized Sex: Comically averted during any sexual situation involving Nathan - actually, very few sex scenes in the show play this trope remotely straight, but if Nathan's involved you know you're in for something particularly disastrous. He's been shown to suffer from premature ejaculation, has got his finger stuck in a girl's vagina during foreplay, and has displayed an o-face so off-putting and bizarre that his partner started laughing hysterically when she saw it. He also has a famous habit of "tripling" himself during sex - yes, kids, that's when you ejaculate, puke and shit yourself all at once - although luckily for everyone this one happens off-screen.

Curtis generally wears a vest or t-shirt on top, tying the jumpsuit's sleeves around his waist. This shows off his upper body, makes him look hardworking, and also reflects the fact that he doesn't feel like he really belongs in a Community Payback jumpsuit. He also always wears a medallion of a saint and a cross.

Alisha generally shows some cleavage and rolls up her sleeves, pops her collar and rolls her trouser legs into capris. She also always wears a belt around her waist, further showing off her figure. She usually wears make-up, jewelry and ballet flats, despite the fact that they're doing manual labor.

Kelly, like Alisha, doesn't wear a shirt under her jumpsuit. She keeps hers open at the collar, though doesn't undo as many buttons as Alisha. Kelly doesn't go to much effort to make hers more flattering or fashionable, more sort of surrendering to the ugliness. She does, however, keep on her jewelry and make-up and is (according to her twitter) devoted to Adidas, wearing them both for community service and civilian life.

Nathan's is worn open to about the belly button with a visible t-shirt underneath. His jumpsuit is also the most stained, covered in paint and blood. The word 'pay' in the phrase 'Community Payback' has been crossed off and replaced with 'blow'.

Simon wears his jumpsuit buttoned up to the chin: precise, neat, and respectful. This, of course, makes him "look a bit like a paedophile" according to Nathan, but fitting his shy personality it also looks like he's trying to hide in it.

Rudy wears his with popped collar, rolled up sleeves and partly unbuttoned.

Third Rudy wears his buttoned straight up, contrasting with Rudy.

There's less variation in later members. As of series 5, all 5 of them unbutton it to reveal fairly large sections of neck and chest with shirts underneath, with some individual exceptions. The variation mostly comes from the shirts they (obviously) wear under them.

Done again in the third season finale, although this time it's Ghost!Virtue Girl trying to get herself off on Curtis while Kelly once again, runs from Tony.

Interspecies Romance: Bruno's interest in Kelly probably applies. Played somewhat more straight when Abby starts having feelings for human-turned-tortoise Mark, though nothing sexual occurs between them while he is still in tortoise form.

Invisibility: Simon. He apparently also becomes inaudible... although they might just be ignoring him.

This is more likely a Perception Filter effect. In 1x05 we see from Sally's POV that while Simon is standing in an open doorway, she doesn't even register that the door is open. This is supported by Simon's reversed power when everyone can't help but notice him.

A girl in series 5 can camouflage, which is essentially this.

In the Hood: Sort of. In the series 2 episode with the Lactokinesis kid, Simon pulls up his hood (for some reason he'd been wearing a hoodie along with his Ian Curtis-looking attire throughout series 2 in distinctly badass fashion as he goes looking for his friends' murderer. Subverted in that he's invisible anyway, so it's not like he needs his face to be hidden, but it fits in line with British perception of the hoodie culture: serious shit is about to go down.

And, of course, Superhoodie. Naturally, since they're the same person.

It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Played with - Nathan mentions this to Curtis as a laugh, who uses this line seriously to try and break up with Sam. It works - but only because Sam recognized it from Spider-Man and got angry.

I Was Quite a Looker - Ruth/old lady Ruth, who was more of a self-only age changer than a shapeshifter, and doing so apparently overtaxed her body.

Played completely straight with Kelly, who is a genuinely nice person despite being a bit...confrontational.

Kick the Son of a Bitch: Kelly delivers a few nasty punches, kicks, and the like to deserving targets over the course of the series. At one point she even gets to headbutt Hitler, then kicks him a few times while he's on the ground

Killed Off for Real: As of the series 3 finale, all of the probation workers (Tony, Sally, Shaun + his unnamed replacement), Nikki, Alisha and Simon.

Curtis, the last member of the original gang, kills himself at the midpoint of Season 4 after having been infected by a zombie virus, to save the rest. Tim, Rudy Two's friend who is trapped in a GTA-sytle hallucination is killed in the next-to-last episode of the series.

Since Nathan and Kelly were both Put on a Bus (at the beginning of Series' 3 & 4, respectively) they are the only members of the original gang still alive.

It's never clarified but Simon might well have been serious-he's already aware that they've killed quite a few people already.

Knight of Cerebus: Dark Geoff is the darkest villain the entire series. A majority of the villains were depicted as sympathetic and having tragic pasts. Dark Geoff is a manifestation of Rudy's father's Dark and Troubled Past and his abusive behavior is disturbingly realistic with very little humor.

Lamarck Was Right: A bit of a variation. Nikki inherits Ollie's ability to teleport after receiving his heart from a transplant.

Alex gets his power through a lung. The reaction of the girl who approaches him implies that the transferal of powers through transplants is common knowledge.

Laser-Guided Amnesia: Abby appears to suffer from this It turns out she's actually someone's imaginary friend come to life.

Late-Arrival Spoiler: The trailer for season 2 featured Nathan recapping the group's powers, and spoiled Nathan's death & immortality. Likewise, trailers for the third season make it implicitly clear that Superhoodie is actually Simon, spoiling a major season two arc. Considering that season 3 ends with Simon & Alisha being Killed Off for Real, it's hard to see how season 4 can be marketed without spoiling, at the very least, their actors not being around anymore.

When playing any episode on Hulu (all the way back to the first episode), it would start out showing the logo for a few seconds with a shot of the main cast as of season 5 - a completely different cast from the start of the show. This seems to have been thankfully removed now.

The show as a whole loves this trope; in plenty of episodes, the characters will refer to the events of the previous episode as "last week". It goes further in episode 2.3, when Nathan points out he hasn't died this week, this being the first episode since 1.5 that he doesn't die, and Simon says it's only Thursday - Misfits airs on Thursdays.

The first episode of series 3 ends with this glorious exchange:

Curtis: Why do we need catchphrases?

Rudy: You know, for when shit goes down, man! C'mon, do you really think we're just gonna spend the next seven weeks amblin' about pickin' up litter?

Simon: He's got a point.

Alisha: Well, maybe it'll be different this time. Maybe there won't be any shit going down.

The Christmas Episode and the beginning of series three show Simon starting to learn this.

Lethal Harmless Powers: Brian, the guy whose only power is to manipulate milk, uses it to drag up the stomach contents of those who had recently consumed dairy products into their trachea, choking them to death or in the case of Nathan, who's immortal, wrapping it around his brain to put him in a permanent vegetative state.

Letterbox Arson: Simon did this to the house of a boy who had been bullying him at school, but had a sudden change of heart when he realised it would burn an innocent cat alive, and with no other means to put out the fire, he peed through the mail slot to put it out. He was caught and sent to a psychiatric unit until they determined he wasn't crazy and sentenced him to community service, setting in motion the events of the first episode.

Literal Split Personality: Rudy's power. He can manifest himself into two separate personalities at times of self-doubt and stress. There's a minor aspect of Evil Twin in that when the split happens, one side of him acts even more socially unacceptable while the other acts in a much more sensitive manner. As of season 4, there's an actual Evil Twin triplet Rudy too.

His father gets the same power but we only see the original and a very evil twin.

Abby later gets impregnated after a nervous pregnant woman accidentally transfers her baby to her, who then transfers it back in the end.

Make Way for the Princess: Alisha gets one of these moments in the nightclub at the start of 1.3, with a Sex Montage thrown in for good measure. Averted in 2.2 where her power is reversed due to drugs, and everybody is repelled by her.

Male Frontal Nudity: We get a glimpse of Curtis's when he shakes off the roofie he was given while in his Melissa form just in time for him to punch the track coach in the face for attempting to rape Melissa.

Messianic Archetype: It may be the absolute height of irony, but ultimately, Nathan arguably meets the criteria by the end of the series, losing his life in his attempt to free the others from the "Virtue Girl", and being resurrected some time later.

A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Kelly's relationship with her fiance ended because she could hear what he was thinking about her. She is constantly being hurt by the unflattering snap-judgments people make based on her appearance, or startled by their unsavoury thoughts (sometimes both at once). Plus, she tends to react aggressively, which makes her look completely insane and irrational:

Nathan's Inner Voice: Would I..? I think I would. Oh my God, I'm thinking about shagging a chav... (Kelly looks outraged, snarls and pushes him over) Nathan: What was that for?! Jesus!

Also, she's starting to see her dog in a whole new light.

Misapplied Phlebotinum: Peter, the guy whose comics control the future. There are no limits shown to what he can do, and all he uses it for is to make Simon his friend, and then effectively kills himself.

Mistaken for Gay: Subverted in 2.3, when Nathan appears to fall in love with Simon. Kelly and Simon first assume Nathan is messing with Simon, and then later conclude that something is wrong.

In 3.3, Simon's sudden strong affection for Peter is mistaken for sexual attraction by Rudy, who argues with Alisha about it.

Mythology Gag: When Finn uses his telekinesis to spill a cup of tea, both he and Abby joke about how lame it would be if that was all his power was limited to. Guess Curtis never told them about Brian, aka "Monsieur Grande-Fromage".

When Abby wonders if Nadine ran out of the Community Centre because she didn't want Rudy to know she might be a Werewolf? Makes you wonder if Jeremy is still waking up naked at the Centre?

Never Trust a Trailer: Not the worst example ever, but the trailers are normally misleading. For example, the trailer for 2.4 made it appear as if newcomer Ollie would be an important character in the episode, probably getting his new teammates in some kind of evil mafia-run game and lots of generic danger. What actually happened was that Ollie died in the first fifteen minutes or so, with the rest of the episode dedicated to the others trying to defeat Tim, his killer who lives in a Grand Theft Auto-esque video game fantasy, and Nikki's emerging superhero powers after she was given Ollie's heart.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: In the third season finale, Rudy tells Ghost!Virtue Girl how the probation workers passed on after one of them first mistakenly thinks the reason they were brought back was revenge. This makes Ghost!Virtue Girl realise that that is the reason she's back. Which eventually results in the death of Alisha.

The elderly Jewish man's attempt to go back and kill Hitler just makes the Nazis end up winning

When Nathan suddenly starts showing attraction to Simon (because of a guy using his power, who he pissed off), Kelly asks incredulously whether he's gay. He'd only showed interest in women before, but no one thinks he might be bi.

Averted in 3.2 with Emma, who appears to find both Curtis and 'Melissa' attractive, and one of the girls Rudy thought he slept with in 3.6.

Averted in the Season 1 finale where a girl in Rachel's circle confessed her sinful life dating lots of guys and other girls.

Finn and Jess never assume that Alex may be interested in both men and women. Then again, neither does Alex.

When Abby becomes attracted to (and then has sex with) a woman, she (and everyone else) assumes this means she's a lesbian, even though previously she only had sex with men (due to Laser-Guided Amnesia making her forget everything prior to the storm). No one appears to think that she could just be a bisexual, or is even aware of the idea. This could be explained though, in that Abby had been searching for a connection in all of her sexual encounters and had found zero sense of fulfillment by being with any of these men.

Nobody Poops: Entirely averted. Almost everyone gets a turn and, half the time, they don't wash their hands.

Simon awkwardly tries to support Alisha's excuse for Kelly by saying "she's got period pains."

Abby lamely claims the blood dripping onto the floor from the chicken that she's hiding behind her back (long story) is due to her period. In another case she says she's got to change her tampon before excusing herself.

No Pregger Sex: Averted. Nathan immediately hits it off with the heavily pregnant Marnie, although he does reference the reason for the trope:

Simon tells Lucy, disguised as Alisha, to stop several times as she gives him a blowjob in 2.1. Curtis later tells him he should have tried harder to stop it on account that Alisha is Curtis' girlfriend, prompting Nathan to say the following:

Nathan: C'mon, man. Be serious. That requires an inhuman level of self-restraint that no man is capable of. The siren call of the blow-job renders all men powerless.

Rudy defends himself for going down on a drugged Melissa!Curtis in 3.2 by saying she liked it. Curtis calls Rudy out for this argument.

One Head Taller: Both the Nathan/Kelly and Curtis/Alisha pairings. The girls are both around 5' 1" note Despite Seth claiming in one episode that Kelly is 5' 5" while the boys are both over six foot tall. Averted with Simon/Alisha, as Iwan Rheon is only 5' 8".

One Person, One Power: Subverted. Although it appears at first that everyone only got one power, Nathan and Simon got secondary powers, and Seth's power allows Jesus and Simon to gain multiple powers.

Averted again when Finn briefly has the power of Satanic possession.

Averted again when Sarah gains several powers at once when Alex fucks her when his power is reversed.

One Phone Call: Nathan ends up in prison and tries to call Simon, saying he only gets one phone call.

A somewhat sad aversion: the guy who texted Simon and asked him to come to the club to hang out in 1.4 was actually trying to text a different Simon.

Jess and Finn, two main characters in the new cast who share their names with the girl who took Simon's virginity and the baby who basically mind-raped Nathan into being his dada respectively.

There's two Sams, Curtis' girlfriend and Rudy Two's flying friend.

Only Sane Man: This is how Curtis (who compared to the others is a relatively normal, polite and well-adjusted individual) appears to view himself in 1.1. He is initially horrified by the group of anti-social, dysfunctional and aggressive delinquents he is being expected to mingle with, protesting that his conviction was unfair and that he shouldn't even be there. He does gradually loosen up, but not because his opinions of the group change radically - he simply gets used to them.

In "Vegas", Nathan attempts to use his new ability as a Reality Warper to make a $1000 casino chip emerge out of Marnie's... well, take a guess. Except it then gets lost until she goes to the bathroom.

Our Ghosts Are Different: They can do drugs, have sex, and kill people with ordinary implements. Also, they learn that there's no God (despite having an afterlife, strangely enough). They seem to come back for revenge or reuniting with loved ones.

There's another kind, which is a simple backwards jump. Simon uses it to become Superhoodie.

The final episode gives us a third variety, which allows the user to jump forwards into a possible future and then jump back if they don't like it, in order to work to change it.

Our Zombies Are Different: The zombies in 3.7 appear, for all intents and purposes, to be act and function perfectly normal even when they themselves are informed that they are zombies until their hunger for flesh takes over.

Papa Wolf: Nathan, of all people, twice. Once with Finn (the baby from season one, not the regular character in season four, due to Mind Control), and again with Marnie's baby genuinely.

Parental Abandonment: Nathan's mum kicked him out of the house rendering him homeless, and before that his dad apparently wasn't there for him or his half-brother Jamie.

Parent with New Paramour: The situation with Nathan's mum and her new partner Jeremy. Notable in that it averts the "evil step-parent" cliche entirely. Jeremy is portrayed as a sweet, sensitive (if slightly odd) guy who is upset by his step-son's constant tirade of abuse. Nathan does ultimately accept his mum's new relationship and try to make amends though.

Performance Anxiety: At first, Simon has difficulty using his power in front of people - becomes pretty funny given that his power is turning invisible.

Personality Powers: All of the people who get powers have them relate in some way to their personality. Averted sometimes - later powers still run along the same lines of being appropriate to the person but are not actually personality powers.

Promiscuous Alisha gets the ability to make any man she wants have sex with her.

Kelly's very self-conscious, and she can read minds.

Nathan's power is he's immortal, which was earlier foreshadowed by nothing anyone says hurting him.

Even though Nathan chose it, it's telling that his second power makes him into a Reality Warper. Now the world really does revolve around him.

Seth, a former drug dealer, gets the ability to store and transfer powers to other people, although he cannot use them himself. Instead of dealing drugs, he starts dealing powers. He's also the first person to notice this trope applies.

Pet the Dog: In spite of his obvious flaws, Nathan has a fair few redeeming moments over the course of the series, largely in his treatment of Kelly and later Simon.

Phony Psychic: The spirit medium used to be a fake, but after the storm he really could speak with the dead.

Phrase Catcher: Nathan sure is a prick, and gets called on it frequently.

Picture-Perfect Presentation: Peter the fanboy draws a comic of Superhoodie beating up the Misfits. It occurs shot-for-shot, with the final shot of them laid out under a vent dissolving into the action shot of Curtis, Kelly, Rudy and Alisha lying there after Superhoodie has gone.

Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Seth's enforcer, a short, slim young man whom the gang initially scoffs at before he hurls them out effortlessly.

Potty Failure: Marnie can't help herself when the baby's on her bladder. According to Nathan, that's OK because it happens to him all the time too (off-screen, mercifully).

Jess' small bladder didn't exactly work well with being trapped in a freezer.

Power Incontinence: It could simply be a bad case of How Do I Shot Web? at this point, but four out of five protagonists (plus most of the supporting characters) have absolutely no idea how to summon their powers at will, or restrain or mitigate their effects. It is a pretty common occurrence all the way through to series 5.

Later he uses his power to rob a bank van, and Nathan lampshades this by noting how odd it is that a bunch of young offenders didn't think of using their powers to commit crimes earlier.

Also, Alisha definitely uses her power for questionable purposes at times (not that it even has any non-questionable purposes, but still...)

"If I had your power, I'd wait til I came, then go back a couple of seconds and just... hover."

Just take a moment and imagine if Rudy or Nathan had gotten Jess's X-ray vision. If you're not horrified there's something wrong with you...

Alex's power literally requires intercourse. While he hasn't, he could easily just convince people he found attractive that they were better off without their powers.

Imagine the situation with Brian the milk guy, but instead of being a murderer, he's completely innocent. What's to stop Curtis from making up a story about a future psycho-killer so that he can murder someone? The other Misfits wouldn't know he's lying. He could just say 'guys, I've just turned back time, and Bob kills us all in the future - we have to kill him first'.

Powers as Programs: Apparently, getting a heart transplant gives you the donor's powers- albeit in an almost uncontrollable form. In addition Seth can remove others' powers, store them in his body and then grant them to a buyer.

If someone with powers takes ecstasy, then their power gets reversed temporarily. For example, Curtis travels forwards in time instead of back, and Alisha inspires revulsion rather than lust.

When Alex's power is reversed, all previous powers he has shagged out of people are given to anyone he is having sex with.

Nathan is also granted powers, though it's not revealed what it is until later on.

Technically every single person who has one got their power in the first episode during the storm, although it's never revealed if Curtis could go back and perhaps give someone powers by getting them hit by the storm. But that's just a bit of Wild Mass Guessing.

Seth can grant powers to people who didn't have any to start with, like 'Jesus' in the Christmas episode, but those powers still originally came from people affected by the storm.

Pregnancy Scare: Seth finds a used pregnancy test — positive — and freaks out because he thinks he's gotten Kelly pregnant. He hasn't. Curtis has gotten his female-self pregnant.

Nathan: If they actually knew anything, they wouldn't be dicking around sticking notes on our lockers. They would have gone to the police, and we'd all be banged up in prison getting gang raped in the showers!

Questionable Consent: Averted with Sally and Simon, twice. The first in Series 1, when she is his probation worker and he is a teenager, but she has no real intentions of sleeping with him. The second in 3.8, when she uses his guilt over him murdering her to convince him that her spirit can only move on if she proves her feelings for him are real, but he is unable to go through with it.

Nathan confesses to Kelly that he usually gets girls drunk in order to sleep with them.

Robert Sheehan, who plays Nathan, left Misfits after the second season and went on to star in mostly films. At the time his decision was interpreted by some as "jumping ship to Hollywood". In-universe, Nathan's absence was explained by the cast in season 3 as "he went to Vegas to be a magician", made explicit in the webisode "Vegas Baby!".

Even more ironic and doubling as a Take That! is the case of Lauren Socha, who plays Kelly. She was written out of the show after season 4, when the actress was arrested after punching and hurling a torrent of racial abuse at a taxi driver, drunkenly threatening to "have his family deported". In-universe justification? "She went to help the children in Africa."

Played straight with the killer in 2.5. When his rage kicks in, his eyes turn a shade of red and his cheeks start to...ripple. It's scarier than it sounds.

Really Gets Around: Alicia is shown to be promiscuous at the beginning of the show, which her power reflects, and in school was dubbed the "Cock monster". Later she's settled down into a relationship with Simon. Nathan too is quite like this, and catches an STD in one case. After he meets Marnie though, this changes him and the pair go off to raise her baby together. Rudy, too, is quite promiscuous. This comes back later to bite him when a woman uses her power on him, making his penis fall off after he leaves her after they have sex.

"I really want to shag her... oh shit, she can hear that!" "WHEN WILL I LEARN?!?!?"

The group have their more quiet bonding experiences, usually when disposing of dead probation workers.

Nathan: Can we please stop killing our probation workers!

Series 2 is having Nathan repeatedly refuse to do something dangerous or confront the villain because it might kill him, leading to one of the others (usually Curtis) exasperated reply of "You're IMMORTAL!". Nathan often points out that it still hurts.

And then subverted when Nathan finally stands down a gunman in the Christmas episode.

Nathan forgetting (well, not bothering to remember) someone's name, and Simon reminding him. Gets to the point where Nathan leaves a pause for Simon to fill in the name.

"Prick!"

The death of their probation workers becomes this. In Season 1, killing a probation worker is a major deal. In Season 3, a probation worker is introduced just so she can get eaten by a zombie cheerleader.

Whenever Nathan says, "These are my friends.", it is immediately followed up by Alisha saying "I'm not your friend."

The gaggle of criminals Nathan eggs on for the sake of his brother and his dad in the boot of the car.

Curtis occasionally puts on this face to freak Rudy out.

Scooby Stack: Rudy, Simon, and Curtis do one when trying to figure out why the Power Broker is in the Community Centre.

Screw Yourself: One of Rudy's copies worries the other will do this, although he may just have been teasing.

Curtis manages this... kind of. He ends up pregnant because of it.

Second Coming: On the Christmas Episode, an evil priest manages to acquire an array of flashy superpowers, including the ability to walk on water, in order to convince the local population that he is the second coming of Jesus (so he can steal vast quantities of money from the poor and sexually abuse women without repercussions).

Photo of Curtis touching Alisha during a photoshoot in 1.4. Obviously he shouldn't be able to due to her power or else the photoshoot would be inevitably far more interesting.

Another in season 3, Curtis' power has always been Mental Time Travel, but after he sold it to Seth, it turns into physical time travel to anywhere, allowing an old Jewish man to go back to try and kill Hitler by appearing in his office as an old man, and Kelly to go back decades before she was even born. Curiously enough, this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened when Seth got involved: Nikki's teleportation power was almost impossible to use voluntarily, and often activated when she didn't want it to-hence why she sold it to Seth. When "Jesus" bought the power off Seth, he was apparently able to use it without any of Nikki's old problems.

As of series 2, Superhoodie has travelled from the future to fix the present.

Holocaust survivor Friedrich tries to do this by assassinating Hitler. Sadly he fails, and when Hitler finds his mobile phone, the timeline changes so that the Nazis win the war using technology which they got by reverse-engineering it.

Kelly later in the episode goes back in time to just after the assassination attempt to steal the phone back from Hitler.

Word of God suggested that Simon's style and persona was deliberately evocative of Ian Curtis. A Joy Division song plays in the background at one point while Simon sits at his computer.

Not only is it a Joy Division song, it's "Atmosphere", the last song released by Joy Division while they were still together, and the one with the repeated line "Walk In Silence". Simon also listens to "Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen in one episode, suggesting a more than brief flirtation with post-punk.

He was also modelled after the 1980's German synth-pop outfit Kraftwerk.

There are quite a few joking references to Spider-Man, usually made by Nathan.

The scene where Nathan goes bowling in 1.4 contains a major nod to The Big Lebowski.

Spiritual Antithesis: The show is this for Heroes, with its working-class, local, setting, deliberate avoidance of world-threatening storylines, mockery of high-flown philosophy or grand gestures and open contempt for any idea that people with powers have a moral responsibility to become superheroes.

Spit Take: Finn's reaction to finding out Stuart (the gay guy from the power support group) is a probation worker.

Superhoodie seems to be in one of these. Alisha falls in love with him and he dies shortly after he reveals his true identity of Future!Simon to her, saying it was meant to be this way. She starts warming up to Simon as a result and his curiosity eventually gives him the truth. In the Christmas special, Simon is seen learning Le Parkour.

The loop finally gets stabilised in the third season finale. Poor Alisha.

There's some evidence it may not be exactly "stable"; see Temporal Paradox below.

"The new boy will save you more than once. He has heart." Oh, god, Superhoodie, really?

The guy they go to in the Christmas Special is a Power Broker.

Stepford Smiler: Good lord, kids being nice and polite and talking about self respect. Something is very wrong...

Stock Superpowers: Mostly Subverted, as powers granted by the Storm are extremely varied. For all the recognizable powers like Flight, Electrokinesis, Invisibility, or Teleportation, there are ones like causing anyone who touches you want to have sex with you, telekinetically controlling dairy products, perceiving the world as a GTA-style video game, or automatically teleporting to the nearest closet when you lie about your orientation.

Stood Up: Seth, by Kelly... who did have a good reason. She was quite literally not herself at the time.

Story-Breaker Power: Curtis' time travel. So much it had to be written out at the end of season 2.

Stuffed into the Fridge: Of course given the genre this happens and a literal one to boot, courtesy of Simon putting Sally into a freezer after accidentally killing her.

Stupid Sacrifice: Future Simon had prior notice of their death by gunshot yet went to it anyway despite no obvious reason (at least at the time) it had to happen that way. Would it have killed him to make his armour bulletproof?

Summed up by Rudy in 3.7 after seeing he has to kill the latest probation worker (who only just arrived and doesn't even get a name): "We just want you to know this isn't our fault. We're in the wrong place at the wrong time. A lot. We're really not bad kids."

Superpower Lottery: 'Powers' granted by the storm range from making people bald and believing you're a dog at night, to telekinesis, mind control, time travel and limited reality warping. Not that any of the powers seen so far are at comics' power levels.

Specifically invoked when one character says he wants a super power too, "something from the A-list."

Superpower Meltdown: The death of Jamie and Lily, when sex makes her ice-to-fire reversed superpowers go out of control.

Superhuman Transfusion: Nikki inadvertently gains the ability to teleport through a heart transplant from Ollie. She never learned to control it like he could.

Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Rudy is this for Nathan. He is just as crude as Nathan, just as sex-focused, just as dislikable, he has an obsession with stealing vending machines, he even makes a similar comment about wearing two condoms at once. Season 4 has Rudy moving into the Community Centre just like Nathan did.

Teleporters and Transporters: Nikki experiences her semi-controllable teleporting ability as suddenly being thrown in one direction or another, and having the world shift on the way. No word yet on what might be able to come along for the trip.

Temporal Paradox: Several Plot Holes could be explained if the Time Loop isn't totally stable, but more like a recurring event in multiple Alternate Timelines. Specifically, the photo of Simon and Alisha in Las Vegas and Future!Simon possessing TV footage from the ASBO-5 timeline. Alternatively, these could be artifacts from Alternate Timelines that happened, but didn't become part of the Stable Time Loop.

The most obvious example being early in series 2, when the group learns that Nathan is alive and buried underground, via a note from "Superhoodie", aka Future!Simon. So we see Present!Simon learn Nathan's whereabouts indirectly from Future!Simon.

There is a big one in the series finale when Jess from a alternate future timeline is able to leave a video message on her iPhone to be discovered by her in the present - a message made right before Future-Jess commits suicide to force Luke to take her back to before they met. It may be an iPhone, but even it can't send a text message and save a video to a date for Future-Jess is now in the past.

Terminator Twosome: Friedrich goes back in time in series 3 to assassinate Hitler, but fails and accidentally creates a present where the Nazis rule. So Kelly goes back in time to the same moment to fix the damage he causes (and kick Hitler in the balls a few times).

There Are No Adults: Played with. The probation workers are always around, we meet Nathan's parents, and people mention their parents, but apart from that they're completely absent. Even though it's repeatedly stated that none of them have enough money to live on their own, none of them seem to live with their parents, and even when they die or disappear by going back in time, their parents don't seem to be bothered.

Simon in particular could really do with a bit of counselling. Although it's later revealed that he was in fact briefly admitted to a psychiatric ward after the attempted arson, no mention was made of him getting any follow-up therapy (which he is very clearly in need of).

Averted with Rudy in 3.5, showing that there is in fact a therapist. Although she appears to be in need of some therapy herself.

They Would Cut You Up: Simon's response to Alisha's inquiry of what will become of them once the public knows of their powers.

Time Master: Curtis, though apparently it only extends to reversing time (and only works when he's feeling guilty about something that's just happened). For now.

He can even rewind time to before he should have had the power. Other people using the power can even travel to before they were born and to wherever they want to be in that time.

Tom the Dark Lord: Almost everyone the misfits meet, villains included, was a normal person before the storm. They tend to keep their original names with a couple notable exceptions. e.g. Monsieur Grand Fromage

Too Dumb to Live: Nathan is all over this trope (it helps that he's immortal. But he tops even himself, in "Vegas, Baby!". He's winning, and winning, and winning in the casino. The house gets suspicious of his luck, and then goes to arrest him because he rolled an 11: a seven on one die, and a 4 on the other. Dice never have more than six pips. Nathan remarks to Marnie as he tries to run from the police that someone should've told him that.

Doubles, as most fans are eager to point out. Someone able to bend reality can, within reason, walk out of any jail cell easily enough that being in prison shouldn't be an obstacle, contrary to what Nathan seems to think.

Early in series 1, it appeared as though Simon was headed in this direction, especially when you consider how creepy he was when he killed Sally it seemed as though this would be his journey to villain. However this was averted as it became obvious later on that he was actually the most noble of the group. note As seen in storyboards, the initial plans involved Simon going Ax-Crazy in the finale, so there was good reason for the hints.

Nathan is a more hurtful than harmful one, but (being a most likely literal sociopath) still definitely qualifies.

Token Minority Couple: Initially played straight with Alisha and Curtis, but averted after they split up.

Too Much Information: Simon's rather distressing reaction to Alisha's power, although it was hardly his fault. And then there's Nathan and his "special" sock.

Trailers Always Spoil: The 'next week' trailers at the end of each episode (common to many British series) many times kill major plot points to the upcoming episode. If you're binge-watching, it's best to skip them entirely.

The keyart, as well as the small pre-episode promos that advertise the series on Hulu all feature the final season cast, so anyone who starts watching the show knows immediately that none of the original cast featured in the first two series are still in the show by the end.

Trust Password: An ineffective one when the shapeshifter appeared, since it involved one word instead of an exchange and who said it was basically arbitrary. The first character who actually encounters the shape-shifter (Nathan) immediately blurts out "the password is ____", rendering it completely useless. Her momentary confusion doesn't even give him enough time to realize she doesn't know the password and run away.

Tsundere: Kelly borders on this, and is notably aggressive at times - assault was the crime for which she was given community service in the first place. She seems to particularly enjoy hitting Nathan, though in all fairness he usually deserves it (at one point he even admits to liking her violent temper and the fact that she isn't afraid to slap him).

Nathan and Kelly's tentative flirtation. He frequently thinks about having sex with her, only to berate himself when he realises that she can obviously hear his thoughts. It's possibly the embarrassment of this (and their general social ineptitude) that has prevented them from taking their relationship any further thus far...

VideoGamesAreEvil: A guy believes he lives in some GTA-like game, casually murders people (including one of the main cast) and hit-and-runs a granny for extra points.

Visionary Villain: Rachel the "Virtue Girl", while being decidedly sinister, seemed to genuinely regard herself as a nice person acting in accordance with the greater good. She seemed to honestly believe that she was helping people and ultimately making the world a better place. She could have used the power to set straight criminals who couldn't be reformed any other way. But she went and tried to use it on the whole world.

Although none of the group are openly affectionate (or even vaguely respectful) towards each other for the most part, it does become apparent that they genuinely care for one another. Nathan even eventually admits to being fond of Simon, despite spending most of his time belittling the poor guy.

In the ASBO-Five timeline, where powers are now public the first person Simon considers asking for help is Nathan, who doesn't even bat an eyelid about letting him kip on his sofa for as long as he wants. This could in fact be because Nathan is a Cloud Cuckoolander, whereas the others would notice that Simon was up to something.

Simon even goes to Nathan after a bad first time with Alisha, and the latter is all too happy to give him sex tips.

Voices Are Mental: Averted a bit too much. When Jen Body Swaps with Kelly, she still speaks with Kelly's accent. Although since we never hear Jen's real voice it's possible that she had the same accent to begin with.

2.3. Holy moly.Superhoodie reveals himself to Alisha to be Simon from the future, who's travelled back to protect the Misfits, and enters a relationship with her.

The Christmas Special. Nikki dies after the Misfits sell their powers, so they buy new ones.

3.8. Tony, Sally and Virtue Girl return from the dead as spirits. Virtue Girl ends up cutting Alisha's throat in revenge, causing Simon to buy new powers and travel back in time to become Superhoodie.

4.4. Curtis is bitten by a zombie he resurrects, so he shoots himself to protect those around him.

4.6, Alex reveals he's lost his penis due to a transsexual's power, explaining his hesitance with Jess. Also, and just as important, RUDY FALLS FOR A GIRL.

5.8, the series finale: Jess is pushed forward a year into the future into a new timeline where she has a baby, and the gang is forced to write her off as missing and where Rudy Two's 'Jumper Gang' have turned into apathetic psychopaths who try to kill Finn and later try to kill the whole gang.

Some end up as Heart Is an Awesome Power, such as lactokinesis being really useful for murdering people who aren't lactose intolerant, future-knitting bringing up some fairly useful visions and hypnotic breasts being good for distracting people so you can satanically posses them.

Window Love: Alisha and Curtis technically hold hands in a club through a glass table.

Window Pain: Kelly breaks the back door window so they can let themselves into a flat.

Wrong Guy First: The first series spent a great deal of time setting up the main couples as Nathan/Kelly and Curtis/Alisha. Who could've predicted that by early series 2 both of these couples would be discarded and the only romance amongst the main five misfits would be Alisha/Simon?

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy